World Cafe Live, the independent music venue on Walnut Street in University City, has been closed since March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic. As they struggle to keep their business afloat, they’re pushing for legislation that calls for $10 billion for Broadway, theaters and performing arts venues across the nation. NBC10’s Rosemary Connors explains.
A bill aiming to alleviate the financial impact that COVID-19 has had on the Keystone State’s independent live music venues is working its way through the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal.
HB2894, dubbed the Pennsylvania “Save Our Stages” Act, would earmark $200 million of CARES Act funding for grants available to independent venue operators, theaters and promoters that have had business interrupted at the hands of the pandemic.
Introduced by Rep. Jake Wheatley, a Democrat representing the Allegheny County area, the proposed legislation would affect Pennsylvania’s roughly 225 independent live music venues, which include high-profile locations like the Mann Center for the Performing Arts.
Eligible recipients would include those that organize, promote, produce, manage or host ticketed live concerts, comedy shows, theatrical productions or other events by paid performing artists. Selected businesses would have fewer than 500 full-time employees, not be publicly traded, and not operate venues in more than 10 states, among other criteria.
PBJ.com explains the struggle for live performance venues hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
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